Manhattan Project

[[Image:Calutrons at Oak Ridge.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 National Security Complex|Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge National Laboratory|Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

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During the Manhattan Project the operators, mostly women, worked in shifts covering 24 hours a day. Gladys Owens, the woman seated at right closest to the camera, was unaware of the purpose and consequence of her work until seeing the photo of herself while taking a public tour of the facility nearly 60 years later.http://smithdray.angeltowns.net/or/go.htm ]]

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The Manhattan Project, or more formally, the Manhattan Engineering District, was an effort during World War II to develop the first nuclear weapons by the United States with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada. Its research was directed by American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and overall by General Leslie R. Groves after it became clear that a weapon based on nuclear fission was possible and that Nazi Germany was also investigating such weapons of its own.

Related Topics:
World War II - Nuclear weapon - United States - United Kingdom - Canada - Physicist - J. Robert Oppenheimer - Leslie R. Groves - Nazi Germany - Investigating such weapons of its own

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Though it involved over thirty different research and production sites, the Manhattan Project was largely carried out in three secret scientific cities that were established by power of eminent domain: Hanford, Washington, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The Los Alamos National Laboratory was built on a mesa that previously hosted the Los Alamos Ranch School. The Hanford Site, which grew to almost 1000 square miles (2,600 km²), took over irrigated farm land, fruit orchards, a railroad, and two active farming communities, Hanford and White Bluffs. The Oak Ridge facilities cover more than 60,000 acres (243 km²) of several former farm communities. Some Tennessee families were given two weeks notice to vacate family farm lands that had been their home for generations.

Related Topics:
Eminent domain - Hanford, Washington - Los Alamos, New Mexico - Oak Ridge, Tennessee - Los Alamos National Laboratory - Los Alamos Ranch School - Hanford Site - White Bluffs - Oak Ridge facilities

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The existence of these sites and the secret cities of Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford was officially secret until the end of WWII.

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The Manhattan Project resulted in the design, production, and detonation of three nuclear bombs in 1945. The first, using plutonium made at Hanford, was tested on July 16 at "Trinity", the world's first nuclear test, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. The second, a uranium bomb called "Little Boy", was detonated on August 6, over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The third, another plutonium bomb called "Fat Man", was detonated on August 9, over the city of Nagasaki, Japan.

Related Topics:
1945 - July 16 - Trinity - Nuclear test - Alamogordo, New Mexico - Little Boy - August 6 - Hiroshima - Japan - Fat Man - August 9 - Nagasaki

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The primary sites of the project exist today as Hanford Site, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the National Security Complex and several other plants.

Related Topics:
Hanford Site - Los Alamos National Laboratory - Oak Ridge National Laboratory - National Security Complex

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By 1945, the Project employed over 130,000 people at its peak and cost a total of nearly $2 billion USD ($20 billion in 2004 dollars based on CPI. http://www.brookings.edu/FP/PROJECTS/NUCWCOST/MANHATTN.HTM).

Related Topics:
USD - CPI

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